It seems this sign is true.

Unless they are having a holding your breath underwater competition....

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oh, it's yersel!

I was reading this blog post by Chris Hall about "being yourself at work".

It's really resonated with me - for a couple of reasons. I work for a plc. In the midst of my employer's interim results, mergers and acquisitions by other companies and the general uncertainty in the financial sector, it's very easy to get distracted from the long-game. or even from the medium-game!

A part of me lives in the moment. All I have is right now. (which leads me to ask if as a Jesus Follower, I am "in Christ" and He is God, outside of time, does that mean there's a part of us as spiritual beings who are outside of time too, but that's another blog post waiting to happen). The best I can be right now is me, and the most satisfaction I can get right now is from being the person I was made to be - no matter where I am. Does that make any sense? Does anyone else feel like that?

I believe we shape tomorrow by the way we live now. Maybe by living more as ourselves in the midst of our employers, we will contribute more, enjoy it more and ultimately feel more rewarded as a result. Our organisation has overhauled our approach to contribution management and this has the potential to change the way we view work.

Listening to SPoS yesterday, Mitch Joel made the point that we sometimes talk about work/life balance, but I think sometimes that creates an unhelpful wedge, segregating our lives more black and white than is needed. If we enjoy work more, I'm not suggesting we'll do it to the detriment of our family/friends/hobbies or other aspects of live, but we won't feel the same desire to "get to the end of the week" and "just make it to Friday". Surely that's just wishing our lives away, right?

So, have a read of what Chris had to say and see what you think. Leave a comment, if you like!

babyB's first drawing. from creche at KC yesterday. *sigh*, the infancy of genius ;-P

While on one level, this is little more than a set of wax crayon lines on a piece of white paper, as it's the first set of such output from oor wee baby Beth, it does mean something to me.

 It's not a sign of child prestigiousness, nor of latent genius, but simply that she can hold a crayon or too and have a bit of fun with it.

 ...that said, I love the use of tone to fully capture the artistic nuance of subtlety...

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2030 - the future is, erm, not made yet thanks.

Rarely can I read or hear the words "The Future" without thinking of the closing scenes of Back to the Future where Doc Brown proclaims he's off to "the future" with a mystical, yet inquisitive look in his eyes.

I love that film, such a part of my teenage years.

Anyway, I read this today and was stuck by a couple of things.

* if the trends mentioned in the report then the future does look pretty interesting and I am all for the emerging of effective collaboration (ooh, buzzword!)

* we watch today's trends to get some idea of what tomorrow brings. Sometimes that so people can try and make money, or make sure we're ready/positioned to capitalise, sometimes it's just to avoid the feeling of "we don't know what's happening next! aaaaaarrrgh!"

* tomorrow hasn't happened yet. we don't know what it will bring. worrying about it isn't going to change the outcome (other than perhaps make it worse because we're caught up in even a little fear about it. that said, I think it's right to find the narrow way that shows our concern for more than simply here and now, and that we are creating our tomorrows right here and now.

When Jenny was carrying Beth, she was pretty ill. For about 5 months. A few things kept me going through that; the promise I believed God has given us about having a family and by not getting too caught up in what the outcome might be. I needed to be very present. I also had the support of our great families and friends too.

So, I think about the future and it interests me to see what people are forecasting - but if we're honest, there's few things about our lives that we can say *will* happen (other than death, but that's a whole other thing that I'm not getting into right now).

Let me live for today, in the light of what I've learned from yesterday and full of hope for tomorrow. I do wonder if Jesus-Followers are "seated in heavenly places in Christ" and God is outside of time, seeing it as one, then what does that mean for me...?

A newsletter from our friendly, neighbourhood airport

I got home from work to find the second edition of "Airport", the newsletter from BAA Edinburgh.

We live 6 miles from the airport and only rarely hear the sound of planes overhead, so I find it a little odd that we get the *publication* (propoganda rag, or it that a bit harsh). Interestingly, along side all the tales of great strides to cut down nuisance noises and exciting new developments, the newsletter is full of people stories.

I think that's probably why I read it. It's basically a PR exercise. D'you think that in the past may have been a standard letter saying how great things were and to get in touch with any concerns etc, but now they've put faces to it, things are more human - more real - so we'll take notice. Seems that I did.

I like that they are reaching out to their neighbours (not that 6 miles isn't a bit of a wide net) and I like that they're using real people to make it *interesting*.

Here's hoping the next phase is a facebook fan page and a real-time flight arrivals twitter feed. If they need help with that, let me know!

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wise words or wibble?

Here's a bishop talking about social media.

I think he's pretty fair - stopping short of saying "all those krazy kids who have nothing better to do and better grow out of it soon" or referring to those who are active in this space as the "Pyjama Brigade". I'm pleased about that. I'm not wearing pyjamas, for example.

My take on it - if anything in my life is more important than bringing honour to Jesus then it might be that I need to stop that thing for a while (deny myself?), turn my heart in the direction of my saviour and enjoy being His first & foremost.

NT Wright on Blogging/Social Media from Bill Kinnon on Vimeo.

What do you think? Too simplistic or have you got another view?

do you work here?

In a recent post on his highly influential blog, Seth Godin made some insightful comments about our attitudes to where we work. You can read the whole thing here.

Here's a line from the post, quoting a member of an organisation who he was not to keen on helping after they'd let him down before:

"All I do is work here. They pay my salary, but I'm me, not them."

Hmm. While I'm not naive enough to think that I should be held accountable for the decisions of my managers & the senior executive if things go wrong - I'm not daft enough to think that i can take "their money" without having a responsibility to contribute to the organisation being run well. To be the best *me* I can be.

And it's made all the more interesting in such times of uncertainty and increasing calls for companies to be efficient, trim costs and do more with less. It could descent to survival of the fittest, everyone clamouring for survival - the ship is sinking, but I'll make sure that I'm alright Jack.

But it doesn't have to.

I think that organisations thrive as their people make the most of their talents and are given the room to be the best they can be. I have been impressed by the work done by my colleagues to bring a sense of togetherness to what we do. We're not perfect and I know we face our challenges, but if we face them together and with a share sense of responsibility - and trust - then I think we will be alright, Jack. And we'll probably enjoy being together too. A group of people with a common aim and purpose can achieve great things.

This has a challenge for those involved with church too. We are to live in the light of who we are in Christ, and also to share that experience with people around us - to be open, fragile and teachable in a group of people who share a common faith with us. We might not agree on everything - and that's probably healthy - but by being together we make more of who we are on our own. That's not to be at the expense of cultivating a personal relationship with God. Something I'm desperate to make more of.

So, thinking about the working day ahead, I guess I am challenging myself by asking "what am I doing today to being people together?".

What does this make you think about?